“Princess! Princess Mayu! Where are you! Come out, your father, King Watanabe, needs to see you!”

Numerous servants walked around a large courtyard, yelling out to the young princess Mayu, searching for her desperately. Unless they find her, they would not be able to keep their jobs. But despite their desperate efforts, it was unlikely that they would find her so easily.

The said girl had already sneaked out of the courtyard and was walking around the somewhat vast meadow and forest area around the castle walls. She was wearing a plain, laced, white dress and had long black hair tied up with cute pink ribbons.

Watanabe Mayu was sick of being cooped up in the castle. In her mind, she thought that without actually doing something, she would not be able to rule a country. Even though she was a great strategist, it was basically useless seeing that a king that hid in his own castle would not be followed. In her case, she was a girl, Queen, but she personally liked the title of King more.

Around this area was a small village that was filled with nice people. There were lots of nice people, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t mean people. It’s rude to say that they are mean people, but rather they are debt collectors and yakuza. There aren’t any thieves in that town at least. The debt collectors were hired by the duke charged with the area, so they were labeled demons and would not let go until they got what they came for.

Many times, the poorer people ended up getting themselves killed or deemed missing due to certain circumstances. Sadly, their children tend to be left behind. The reasoning is unknown, but it was a cruel thing to do. It was most likely because the children are worth less than the adults, so the adults die first. It’s up to what happens that decides the fate of those kids.

Speed, the only thing that the girl could take pride in was what she was now putting her life on. A raven haired girl in very sloppy attire made of nearly all black ran with all her might. One second, she was here and the next, she was all the way over there.

Even though it was unlikely that anyone would be chasing her into the meadow area, she was still running. Gruesome scenes were playing through her mind over and over again. She cursed the world and the person that got the idea of debt collecting and money. It was frustrating, but that was the world. If she went against the duke, well, she would be killed. The way of life of the high class and the low class was completely different.

Running in the hallways is bad because you’ll hurt someone. That’s what teachers tell students sometimes, but it still had a meaning back in the days. It meant a lot when you were running at such a high speed that the girl clothed in black was running.

Of course, despite being very unlikely to happen, the girl ran into the princess that was just pacing back and forth throughout the meadow. The girl in black managed to skid to a stop before creating a huge impact, but the extreme acceleration and deceleration caused their heads to hit each other’s.

Unfitting of her looks, the raven’s tears started to overflow. Well, that of course caused the cyborg princess strategist girl to get very confused. The girl in black was the one that had crashed into her in the first place.

In her mind she thought, ‘Commoners are hard to understand after all. This is why I should go out and experience things myself rather than being cooped up all day. Sadly, I can’t do something like that now.’ It was somewhat complicated seeing that those girls were actually about the age of 13 at the time.

“…..Um….are you ok?” Mayu tried to find out what happened, but that completely failed.

She tried to make a funny face to cheer the girl up. Not knowing why she would even bother, Mayu tugged on her cheeks and made weird faces until the girl in black stopped crying.

Instantly or actually not really, she went back to her poker face that broke very quickly. The girl in black stared at the princess with her dark eyes. The cyborg found her entranced by the girl and let down her hair. She held out the ribbons to the girl in black and the girl just stared questioningly.

They both sat down on the soft ground. Mayu went ahead and sat behind the girl in black. She took her ribbons and started to mess around with the girl’s hair.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

Mayu asked in a manner that seemed un-like a princess.

“……BLACK……. Just call me that……..”

The girl in black replied with a nickname of a sort. Seeing as that BLACK had decided to not give her real name, Mayu decided the same. While still playing around with BLACK’s hair like an elder sister would, she gave her name or rather nickname as well.

“……I’m Nezumi……”

Finally, she decided on a hairstyle to give the girl in black. She took the ribbons and tied the long, black hair into a ponytail. In a way, she thought that it looked a bit weird and too casual, but of course she didn’t really know whether or not BLACK would like it.

“….Hrm….. I should go now……. Bye-bye, BLACK….. You don’t need to keep the hairstyle, but can you keep those ribbons for me?”

Mayu got up and decided to give her ribbons to BLACK. BLACK just simply looked up at Mayu timidly. Her eyes were somewhat puffy from the sudden crying. Without another word, the princess ran off back towards the castle. BLACK just silently observed the girl’s slowly disappearing figure and mouthed the words, thank you.

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“Princess Mayu!! Come back here please!!”

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A/N: This is actually a 2-shot because I wanted to create a part where you could get excited waiting for more and I haven't finished the other part... THis is a bit cliche, but then again.....